Welcome, everybody. It's a pleasure to be with you, and a especially warm welcome to PMET Resources shareholders. We really appreciate your participation. Today on the agenda, the significance of our Whabouchi One and discovery, and why it could well be one of the most important hard rock lithium deposits under development today. Not the least of which is because of the potential in our co-product opportunities, but especially cesium and tantalum production. Lastly, there's a lot to like about the position that the lithium market is in today, and I'm going to talk more fulsomely about the structure in the market, the supply deficit that's emerging, and for that matter, our participation over time in what we expect to be a significant demand environment. So, let's get into it. You can refer to our forward-looking statements and disclosures. They're on our most recent website listing for our presentation materials.
So, starting with Whabouchi One, it really is an incredible piece of geology, and I think that's now well proven through the drilling that's being undertaken over approximately the last four years. The discovery is in north-central Quebec. Really, really well located adjacent to existing infrastructure. The Trans-Taiga Highway, which would be the key path for downstream logistics. We're only approximately 13 km south of the Trans-Taiga Highway. We're approximately 45 km south of one of the largest of the Hydro-Quebec power installations in La Grande 4, LG4, at which there is an airport. All of which is incredibly complimentary to the future development of our large-scale lithium project. Downstream logistics from the Trans-Taiga Highway through the Billy Diamond Highway and down to the Gulf of St. Lawrence.
But what's absolutely key to Sakami and the discovery there is the confluence of lithium, cesium, and tantalum. Whilst people search for LCT pegmatites, lithium, cesium, and tantalum pegmatites as they scour the globe, it's very, very rare that you get all three minerals in those categories, lithium, cesium, and tantalum, in the one deposit. But that's exactly what we have at Sakami. Lithium, cesium, and tantalum at scale and with significant grade. So how does that present? Well, we have one of the top 10 largest hard rock lithium pegmatite discoveries globally. We easily have the world's largest pollucite-hosted cesium deposit. In fact, in the cesium category, we're pretty much breaking the record books. And we have one of the largest tantalum or tantalite pegmatite resources globally. It's in the top five. So the confluence of scale and grade in lithium, cesium, and tantalite as a host at Sakami really is incredible.
Even more important than that is that they're relatively easily recovered with simple physical processes. That's true for spodumene recovery for its lithium content. Pollucite recovery for its cesium content. Tantalite recovery, sorry, it's tantalum contained. So, each recovered using simple physical processes. None of that is difficult and well proven at other hard rock operations around the world. Lastly, $182 million cash as of approximately the end of February. We're very well funded now for the purpose of the balance of the work that's required to get us through to FID. And the base case project being lithium and tantalum at CV5 in the second half of 2027. So, not that long to go.
What does it give us? Well, in the end in the base case project, lithium and tantalum, we would have a top five, in fact, we think we estimate the fourth largest hard rock operation globally through the development of our stage two project at 800,000 tons per annum of spodumene concentrate. It'll be amongst one of the largest hard rock lithium mines globally. That's what's significant about Sakami and its base case development. But, that's before you thought about the upside in the pollucite, the cesium and the tantalite, the tantalum. I'm going to talk about that some more. So, that's to come. So, how do we do it? Well, the base case project I've alluded to. It's the lithium and tantalum operation peaking at its first stages at 800,000 tons per annum of spodumene concentrate. Big by anyone's measure.
Next, we go through the process of unlocking the cesium and the tantalum potential in the Sakami project. Those critical minerals are co-hosted in exactly the same rock that's coming out of the ground for the purpose of your base case lithium operation. So, we bolt on the approvals for the purpose of pollucite and tantalite recovery. Lastly, we have a lot of work going on in the background that supports further diversification with chemicals downstream. The chemical initiatives that value add each of those concentrates, but especially the lithium in spodumene concentrate and the cesium in the pollucite concentrate. Chemical relationships already underway. We're working on lithium with the assistance of VW AutoPower Co and others in the supply chain. And more recently, we've announced the opening of a relationship with Koch. Koch Technology, part of the broader private Koch Group, an incredibly large private organization based in the US that has a distinct focus on the critical mineral sphere. And we're working with them in respect of value adding the pollucite concentrate into the various chemicals that are used downstream. Again, another really important relationship and a demonstration of those that are paying attention to our Sakami discoveries. VW and PowerCo in the lithium category and now working with Koch and opening up a relationship with Koch in the future of the cesium world and our Sakami project.
There's been a lot happen in the last four years from a discovery in November 2021 to most recently the presentation of our feasibility study on the lithium only discovery at CV5, and then the presentation of our environmental and social impact assessment at the end of March. All of that's happened within the space of approximately 4 years. It really is a remarkable effort by the team and a credit to them. Ably assisted through the strength of the discovery. There's no two ways about it. Sakami is a remarkable piece of geology and it'll be important to the future of the lithium, cesium, and tantalum worlds. But it doesn't stop there because it's such a powerful trend. We're now focused on the core of the Sakami project geology. In the diagram on the right-hand side, CV5 which underwrites the base case for the first stage of development, lithium and tantalum. Then, more recently, the CV13 discovery. CV13 is going to be an important part of our development portfolio over time because of its strength in grade, especially. Very, very high grade in lithium, cesium, and tantalum in the resource at CV13. So, we're looking forward to being able to bolt that on to our base case development.
But then there's plenty of blue sky. We have discoveries at CV8, CV12, and CV4, each of which we fully expect to drill again this year and realize the potential in those discoveries. There's every chance that CV4 is connected to CV5, so there should be ultimately more drilling and more resource. And then at CV12, we have hits in cesium, we have hits in lithium. We're just yet to fully tease out the confluence of the geology there, but they look like important targets and those that we'd look to hit during the course of this year. So, what have we done already? Well, we've ticked off the ESIA submission. The formal process is now underway both at the provincial level, through COMEX and the James Bay approvals process in concert with Quebec, but also at the federal level. We presented both ESIAs with our complete feasibility study on CV5, albeit lithium only. That forms the base case now for the detailed approvals process, for which we expect completion in the second half of last year. But, during the course of this year, there's still a lot more to come. And we're looking forward to demonstrating the potential in the project, especially the co-products, for which there's a lot more test work underway, and the evolution of future relationships in the cesium supply chain and the tantalite or tantalum supply chain, as well as the work we're doing to grow the consortium around the lithium project. So, all of that to look forward to during the course of this year.
Okay, let's dive into a little bit of the detail around the co-products. Lithium, cesium, and tantalum are each in their own right important critical minerals, and they're all in high demand. And you can see that through the price that's received. Here we're showing tantalite pricing for its contained tantalum. It's been on a serious run actually in the last four or five months. It's a confluence of events that are occurring on the supply side. There's been some disruption in Central Africa, where a lot of the world's supply comes from. Conflict in that area and the concept of blood tantalum means it's not the preferred source, but people go there because they have to to satisfy demand constraints. In contrast, on the demand side, demand has been growing. The effect of the data center build-out, electronics deployment generally, consumes a lot of tantalum. And as a result, the confluence of demand in respect of say electronics and to a certain extent defense is outstripping supply and that's why the price has run. You can see that in the detail around where tantalite is used. It's used in the electronics industries or capacitors or filters and sputtering targets and it's used in super alloys. All of which are in demand and especially in an environment where people are focused on defense investment. Tantalite is a key and it could add substantially more value to our Sakami project. It's a very, very powerful tool and a very, very powerful co-product to the base case lithium mine.
Moving on to cesium, well cesium's also been on a price run of its own. In fact the price has more than doubled over the space of the last 12 months. Now it's probably because cesium is also another one of these important critical minerals but it also has some base case industrial uses. I'll come back to them in more detail. Cesium is also very, very rare. There's only ever really been three continuous primary mines. The Tanco mine in Manitoba, Canada, the Bikita mine in Zimbabwe and then historically a small mine in Western Australia. And I think it's fair to say that it's rare. And because it's rare, a new discovery especially one like that of our scale is very, very important to the future of the cesium market and we are really keen to take advantage of that.
Because cesium is relatively new, I'll explain a little bit more about how it's used. It's used in classic industrial sectors. Drilling fluids being one of the more important ones in the form of cesium formate. It's used for the control of high pressure and typically deep wells. But it also because it's a liquid and it's very, very heavy, it has the effect of increasing the productivity of the drill bit, minimizing the impact to the formation itself, because it's a liquid, and it's non-toxic, it won't block up the well, and ultimately helps with the productivity of the well. It's also used in the catalyst industry, in the synthesis industry, classic industrial uses, where it's a value add to each of those industrial processes. Now, as we understand the market today, cesium and its use is resource-constrained, i.e., there's not enough of it. So, a big discovery like ours should be very important to classic industrial uses like those that I've already described, but also potentially the future of the solar industry. The solar industry and the technology being deployed can be improved with the application of cesium used in perovskite crystal structures. Perovskite crystal structures are the next step in panel efficiency beyond the classic silicon crystal structure. And in an environment where the industry moves to the application of perovskite containing cesium, then there is the potential for a significant boost to demand. The industry needs more cesium production to support such an application. And again, it's another reason why a discovery like ours is very important to the future of the cesium world. There is insufficient pollucite to support these demand applications, in which case a new discovery, certainly one that's big, in fact, off the charts scale like ours, represents a great opportunity for the future of the cesium market. And of course, hence the value in our overall Sakami project.
Moving on to lithium, where it's so interesting what's happening. I can appreciate that it was only just 12 months ago that everybody was fretting about the demand and supply equation. But a lot has happened in the last 12 months. Firstly, demand has burgeoned. There's been an uptick in demand. Now, that's happening for several reasons, but none the least of which would be, as we see it today, the geopolitical issues and concept around energy independence because of the oil crisis. What that's forcing the world to do, whether you're an individual and if you're worried about your commute on a day-to-day basis, or you're a country who's fretting over energy independence, batteries can be part of your solution. And that has created a new demand wave. That's definitely contributing to the supply-demand imbalance that's supporting price today. And there's no reason to believe that that's going away in a hurry.
The next big one to speak to, I think it's reasonably well understood now, is the concept of stationary energy storage. BESS is the industry acronym. This has become such an important tool now for several reasons, but none the least of which is stability in energy networks. Batteries are like a great big shock absorber. They're able to absorb energy when it's in excess, and they're able to deploy energy when it's under demand. And that means that batteries are now part of any network. It's not even just attached to renewable applications. A big deal that started to emerge is actually the US market, where they're putting batteries on the back of gas turbines. So, classic fossil fuel deployment, but with batteries for the purpose of stabilizing the network and dealing with energy peaks. For that matter, facilitating the storage of energy when there's excess energy in the network. If you think about it, there is a lot of excess capacity. As much as everyone frets about power in total, the reality is most generating assets are not used fully during a 24-hour period. They're built for peak demand in the mornings and the evenings. So, a battery attached to a legacy fossil fuel network affords an opportunity to keep those energy assets running more forcefully during a 24-hour period, charging your battery, and then deploying the energy when the peak in demand comes in the morning and the evening. Or, for that matter, in a data center when there's a rush on energy for the data center itself. So, these are all really important. As the cells become cheaper, the addressable market grows in stationary energy storage because their applications broaden.
The same thing is true with buses, commercial mid-size commercials, rigid body trucks. They're also a big phenomenon that people are underestimating. Again, as always, China is leading the charge. And here they're deploying the electrification of that segment, you know, mid-size commercials, rigid body trucks, heavy duty trucks faster than most, approaching sort of 40% application or penetration in that market segment. So, where China goes, I will argue the rest of the world will follow, and it's being badly underestimated in terms of total battery demand and hence the ability of the market to supply, which is where we start to reference the effect of the supply demand imbalance.
In supply terms, there has been issues. When the market was fully supplied, lots of discussion about, and especially from China, the significance of their lepidolite production in Western China, and new African supply. But, I want to suggest to you that not much of that was really sustainable through the cycle. It's not typically low-cost production. You only have to look at the evidence and the stability in supply from classic Western suppliers like those in Western Australia. Those ships, if the market was oversupplied, those ships won't be pushed back. So, a logical question then is to ask, "Well, where do the ships get pushed back?" And I want to suggest to you that was probably the high-cost supply from lepidolite in Western China and African production. So, if it wasn't sustainable in the market, then there's a reasonable chance it cannot be relied on in a low-price environment and therefore sustaining a full cycle. So, that impact, mines being shut down, but I would argue especially in China and Africa, created some supply issues, which is one of the reasons why pricing has improved and especially in the last 6 months.
All of that leads you to the conclusion that there is going to be supply-demand imbalance, and it's not unreasonable to assume supply shortfalls from here because there has been underinvestment in mining enterprise. So, big, large-scale, and low-cost mines like that represented by our Sakami project are absolutely going to be required. And it might just be that our Sakami project becomes a very, very important piece of the supply base in the latter part of this decade as we look to commission in the latter part of 2029. I don't think it's unreasonable to assume that there will be supply deficits as the demand outstrips and our mine is going to be a key link in the chain and arguably a low-cost contributor to the future of lithium raw material supply. The match could almost be perfect. So, we're looking forward to seeing that unfold.
Lastly, you would suggest that we're relatively early in this stage of the lithium rally or price appreciation that's occurred off its base. In previous rallies, the period within which the price has appreciated typically occurred within the space of about 18 months to 2 years. Here we are probably only 6 or 8 months into the price appreciation off its lows. Which, you know, by implication, that means that we still have quite a period to run. Now, it might be I would argue that also this run lasts longer because the scale in the market has grown so large. And let me put that into perspective. The growth required just this year in lithium raw material supply is approximately 500,000 lithium carbonate equivalent tons. It sits in the range and it's pretty much consensus 450,000 new lithium carbonate equivalent tons required in the calendar year 2026. Well, that same increase in production it was the size of the market in 2021. So, in less than 4 years, the new production that's required in 1 year is equal to the entire production base which, you know, arguably had taken 20 or 30 years to develop in 2021. So, that puts, I think, into some perspective just how large the task is from a supplier response point of view to deal with growth year on year as the market grows. That's one of the reasons why I think we can be optimistic about price appreciation in the lithium world and what's required to sustain the market for the medium and the long term. In which case, there is reason to be optimistic about price. Noella, that's it for my presentation materials, but I'm really looking forward to questions. Thank you.
